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4 charged with taking bribes
By Shaffiq Alkhatib | Posted: 16 August 2011 1810 hrs
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SINGAPORE: Four former Fullerton Hotel employees
were charged on Tuesday in court with accepting bribes totalling
more than S$20,000 from a taxi driver.
Two of them later pleaded guilty and one of them was fined S$18,000
for accepting a S$1,000 bribe.
Forty-six-year-old bell captain Azahar Ariffin and 47-year-old
bellman Goh Yeow Kwang admitted to accepting the money from Yip
Kiam Bin in exchange for assigning guests' taxi bookings to the
cabby.
They did this instead of using the hotline when guests asked for
taxi limousine services.
Azahar, who had held his post since 2000, was fined S$10,000 for
accepting S$3,800 in bribes between 2006 and 2008.
He also had to pay a penalty, equivalent to the amount he had
accepted in bribes.
Should he fail to fork out the money, he would have to spend 14
weeks behind bars.
Goh took S$1,000 in bribes from May 2007 until mid-2008.
He was fined on Tuesday S$18,000 and ordered to pay a penalty of
S$1,000 as he had already been convicted of a similar offence in
2003.
Then, Goh had to pay a fine and a penalty totalling nearly S$13,000
after being convicted of five graft charges.
The two other men charged were the hotel's then-head concierge,
49-year-old Muhammad Salman Abdullah Tan (alias Gregory Tan), and
another bell captain, 45-year-old Narayanasamy P Annamalai.
Tan faces three charges involving S$2,200.
Narayanasamy, who is accused of 11 graft charges, is believed to
have accepted more than S$13,000 in bribes.
Their pre-trial conferences will be held in November.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Kok Shu-En told the court that Yip, the
cabby, was fined S$28,000, last year.
-CNA/wk